Kathy's Race
by lifethatyouhate
Summary: All Kevin wants to do is woo Renee, but a certain blonde intent on racing him stands in his way.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or anything associated with it.

She was beautiful.

She wore the same yellow dress through spring and summer and the same red dress through fall and winter. I spent my entire first year on Waffle Island thinking of the way her brunette hair fell just past her jaw line and how innocent her brown eyes were when they glanced me during the rare chances I could see her- Mondays at Caramel Falls.

If I could, I would hike over to Brownie Ranch to speak with her every single day. In fact, I tried to do that for the first season I moved there. There was only one thing standing in our way.

"Hey, Kevin!"

I winced, no longer afraid to show my true feelings. It was Sunday, her day off. I had _just _seen her wandering around in Maple Lake District. When had she passed me?

"Hey…Kathy…"

"That's a nice racetrack over there, isn't it?"

I had her pegged. I had known what she was going to say beforehand. How could she so robotically spout this nonsense every day?

It had been a good few weeks before I had come to try again, but it was the last day of winter- the last day of my first year!- and I had hoped to catch her off guard and speak with Renee.

But, of course, it was impossible to catch Kathy off guard.

"Yeah, it's great. Anyways, if I could just get past you, I really want to speak with-,"

"Want to race me?"

"Look, Kathy, I'm _really _busy-,"

A black cloud appeared over her face. The sound of the piano's darkest notes hovered in my head.

"Oh," she stated, her eyes flashing. "That's okay then. I'll see you later."

And, just as quickly as she had come, she vanished.

I nervously looked around, but I could spot her nowhere. And yet, I could not relax.

_I know this trick_, I told myself, trying to see around the barn without moving from my spot. _It happens all the time. But…well…maybe…maybe just this once…_

I took another step.

"Hey, Kevin!"

"Oh. It's you again. Look, I don't want to-,"

"That's a nice racetrack, isn't it?"

"It's the same racetrack that's been there since I moved here. In fact, it's a pretty crappy racetrack. I've seen a million better racetracks in my entire life. Don't you have somewhere to be or something, didn't you like _just _ask me-,"

"Want to race me?"

"No!" I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. "I don't! I never have! I never will! I don't even have a horse!"

The same black cloud formed, and the notes in my head rang once more. Kathy's eyes were red for an instant, and then, just as before, she repeated her mechanical sentiment and disappeared.

And then, Renee came out of the barn.

She paused to pat a grazing cow's head. I lifted my hand to her, hoping that she would turn around and rescue me. Surely, if she was the one to take my hand and pull me past the invisible barrier, I would be allowed entry?

"Renee," I murmured, and lifted my foot once more.

"Hey, Kevin!"

I turned a dark look to Kathy, but it seemed that nothing would faze her. She continued to smile innocently at me, as if she hadn't been ruining my love life for the entire year.

What does Owen see in this girl?

"That's a nice racetrack, isn't it?"

I looked over at her, considering how long jail time would be if I attempted to fight her. Would she attack me if I tried to dash by? Would she drag me back? Or would she use the same strange teleportation powers she often used on me instead?

And then, a thought came to my head.

"Yeah," I told her, nodding. I looked thoughtfully over at the world's crappiest racetrack and smiled. "It _is _really nice…"

"Want to race me?"

I glanced over at her and smirked. "You know what? Maybe the 549th time is the charm for you. Yes, I will race you Kathy."

"Okay!"

And suddenly, I was on the racetrack.

"Whose horse is this?" I asked, looking down at it in shock. "And why are Gill and Craig racing with us?"

Craig and Gill turned to me with miserable looks that mirrored my own. I wondered if I brought this up to them later, would they remember it? I looked back at Kathy, who had a devious glint in her eyes.

"What happens if I win?"

"You get my respect for you as a horse jockey, of course!" the blonde exclaimed with obvious exasperation, as if I were a total fool. "Isn't that enough?"

"No."

"You know, I once swore to leave Brownie Ranch and never return if I lost…but I've never lost before…" she told me, tapping her finger thoughtfully on her chin.

I looked back to the chestnut beneath me- it was relatively smaller than the others. "Alright, we _have _to win," I told it. All it did was whinny softly and look over at me with the same dead look Gill and Craig possessed.

"You better not lose, wimp," Craig told me.

"I'm not planning to," I replied.

"Go!" Kathy announced, and she rushed past the rest of us.

The horse I was mounted on sped off like a bullet, dashing madly after Kathy. I was aware of my voice mumbling, "Go, go, go," over and over again, but it didn't seem like that would make the horse go any faster or slower. It was as desperate to win the race as I was.

I quickly came into arms reach of Kathy when she suddenly tossed a carrot in front of me. I noticed that an eggplant and an orange had just slapped Gill in the face, and tried not to smirk. I had never liked him much, to be honest.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded anyways, glaring over at her.

"Vegetables from your farm, of course. They help the horses go faster!" she cried out excitedly.

I thought of Renee and silently prayed to the Harvest Goddess. Beside me, Kathy waved her left arm around wildly, slapping me in the face at one point.

"What are you doing _now_!"

"Stretching!"

I could see the finish line. Gill and Craig had been caught up by her last batch of corn stalks and seemed to have fallen far behind. My horse surprised me by gobbling up the next apple she launched and springing ahead.

"GO!" I shouted. "Hurry! Hurry!"

Kathy's hand reached violently for me. In fear, I kicked the horse on accident, and it suddenly spurred ahead, crossing the finish line.

Just as quickly, I was standing in front of Kathy, but we had switched places. For once, I had not been teleported back to my previous spot. I had crossed through the invisible boundary. Renee was standing right behind me!

"Renee-,"

"Kevin! That was excellent!"

Kathy had seized a fistful of my shirt sleeve. "Uh…thanks?" I replied nervously, trying in vain to pull away. When had she gotten so strong?

"I'm going to have to leave Brownie Ranch now! I've been beat. I know when to admit defeat, you know."

I raised an eyebrow doubtfully.

"So now, I have something for you. To congratulate you on winning, I mean."  
"Um…cool. Great. Just give it to me, I'm kind of in a hurry…" I felt no need to be nice to her anymore. Either I was going crazy or Kathy _was _crazy, and I had a feeling it was the latter.

Suddenly, she was leaning forward. Her lips puckered up, and she brought her face closer to me.

"What are you doing?" I shouted, trying to pull away.

"Oh, give me a kiss, Kevin. You won!"

Renee looked at me with disdain, turned on her heel, and stamped into the chicken coop.

"No, I don't want to-,"

"Come here, Kevin!"

"No, you're crazy!"

Her eyes flashed, and a sickening smile spread across her face. "Now, what makes you think that?" She stepped closer, and I was glad that Renee was not around to hear my yelp of fear.

A week later, I moved away from Waffle Island.

Author's Note: I'll leave it up to your imagination of what happened with Kathy and Kevin to make him move. Haha, okay, I actually like Kathy and I think she's a cool character, but when I was playing as a girl I was trying to befriend Renee so that I could get her to marry (I had gotten everyone else to get married BUT her). I went there every day and I would have to wait until it was late to talk to her and give her gifts because I refused to race Kathy. While writing this, I finally decided to try the stupid horse race (don't know why it never occurred to me to do it before). I won on the second try, Kathy went away, I went to Renee and tried to give her a yellow wonderful like I had been doing for the past few weeks and she was like I don't like that! :| But when I left I checked our friendship and she had three hearts and now her and Toby are getting married! Dreams do come true. So anyways haha, I hope you enjoyed reading this. I had a fun time writing it. I don't usually write any humorous things to be honest. Thanks for reading through all of this! (:


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